“You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. Here is my advice: It would be good for you to finish what you started a year ago. Last year you were the first who wanted to give, and you were the first to begin doing it. Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have.”
2 Corinthians 8:9-11 NLT
Grace – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense – is at the very heart of why we pilgrims are Christians. And as Paul rightly wrote, the grace became flesh through the person of Jesus Christ. He left the richness of Heaven to become poor for the sake of anyone who believed in Him and who responded positively to His message of grace. We didn’t deserve such favour from our Creator and holy God. We had done nothing of ourselves to warrant it. Rather, our unholiness was a stench in God’s nostrils, and we could have no complaint if there was no future for us in His presence. And yet, “He became poor, so that by his poverty He could make [us] rich”. And rich we are. Paul wrote, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). There are no spiritual blessings that are unavailable to us, and we have a treasure trove that we can draw on now and in the future. In Philippians 4:19, Paul wrote, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus”. I’m sure all of us pilgrims can testify that, so far, we have had a life where God has supplied all our needs (not “wants”, by the way). Jesus said to the church in Ephesus, “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! …” (Revelation 2:9a). In all these cases, however, we need to beware of associating richness with worldly wealth. The richness in Christ is priceless, and He said, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:26). We need to remember that hell is a depository for rubbish, just as the valley next to Jerusalem, called Gehenna, was. Jesus often associated hell with this rubbish dump “where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out” (Mark 9:48). It is a place where those who decide not to benefit from the free gift of God’s grace will spend eternity. Jesus was horrified by the thought of hell, and His life was dedicated to supplying an unlimited fountain of grace to provide sinners with a Godly alternative.
“let your good deeds
shine out for all to see“
We pilgrims are the children of grace, because through all that Jesus did for us at Calvary, we can now stand righteous before our Heavenly Father. We call Him “Abba”, which, translated, means “Daddy”. The only way any of us can enter into a relationship with God is because of His grace toward us. Ephesians 2:8, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God”. But we can’t leave it there. We hold that message of grace and have the opportunity to take it to those we know and meet. That does not just mean providing tracts to anyone we meet, but it also means we are dispensers of “salt and light” wherever we go. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:13-16). In my walks around the West of Fife, I occasionally meet people who are scared and fearful, without hope or vision for their lives. One elderly man I recently met confessed that he was glad that he did not have many more years in this life to endure the worry of the wars that blight our planet and the political decisions made by our government. A lady walking her dogs talked in a similar way, using it as an excuse for not becoming a believer, because, as she claimed, how could God allow all the suffering in this world to happen? We pilgrims have the words of Jesus, which we can use to counter the lies of the devil. But to know these words, we have to be diligent in reading what He said. When He was tempted in the wilderness, Jesus used Scriptures to refute the devil’s invitations. And so can we, when faced with arguments from people who have no knowledge of who God really is.
As Paul wrote, we pilgrims “know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Let us today look for opportunities to share that with others through our attitudes, our generosity, our kindness, and our love for those not as fortunate as we are. And if the opportunity arises, we can share our testimonies of what God has done for us.
Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your “generous grace”, made so available to Your children and the people around us. Help us, we pray, to find the time to reach out to the needy and share all that You have done for us. In Your precious name, Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 